A/N: Yay! Finally another chapter!
Okies people, there's references later on in this one that probably only people
who've read Harry Potter will totally get, but that shouldn't matter too much. I
guess I should stick in a disclaimer right about now huh? Harry Potter and CCS
do not belong to me AT ALL! Enjoy chapter five, and please review ^_^.
Chapter Five
"You're fond of her, aren't you?"
Zachary heard for about the millionth time since they'd gotten home.
"No Way! She's an awful witch! Now
stop asking me that."
"As a matter of fact she's the
most powerful witch in the world, next to your Sakura of course."
"Of course." Zachary rolled his
eyes. "You know, you're getting to be pretty annoying. You're lucky I haven't
donated you to charity yet. I'm starting to think maybe you're the one
who likes her."
"Don't be absurd." Quan crossed his
arms in front of him and raised his nose in the air. "I couldn't possibly."
"Whatever you say, my liege."
Zachary flipped the channel and took a sip of his soda, while Quan flew
muttering to himself all the way to Zachary's room.
~At Torako's…
"So you told them huh?"
Torako had just finished telling
her brother all about what happened at Li's house, and about her first capture,
even though she knew that he'd probably already know about half of it.
"Yep, and they didn't care. They
really are nice people. Zachary called a truce when we were walking home. I
decided to give him a chance."
"And our favourite cousin?" Saruko
questioned her.
"He…I…well…he wants to be
friends…kind of. " Torako had no idea how her brother would react. She guessed
it wouldn't be well.
"Friends?" he snorted.
"What? What's so funny?" Torako
said heatedly.
"Oh nothing, it's just that I'm
sure our families will love this."
"They won't be finding out about
it if you value your life." She glared at him.
"We'll see. We'll see. So where's
the card?" he changed the subject quickly.
Torako took the blue and silver
coloured card out of her side bag and waved it in front of him like it was a
trophy. "The first card to show itself, and I captured it all by myself," she
bragged.
"Nice job."
"That's it? Nice job?!" Torako had
expected a bit more interest.
"Well, what else do you want me to
say? It's not like it was an amazing capture. The Giggle is the easiest card of
all of them to get. Let me know when you capture, say, any of the cards that have
a useful purpose. Then you'll see some enthusiasm."
"Aargh! You're so difficult!!!!"
"You should be used to that by
now."
"I give up." She threw her hands
up. "I've got homework. Don't bother me."
Torako stalked off to her room and slammed the
door (again!). She sat on her bed and looked around the place. It didn't look
nearly as nice as her room at home. Her canopy bed looked out of place in a
room with such a low ceiling. Through her window she could always see the
streetlights shining, not at all like at home. Their manor was set far back
from the road, and it was usually fairly quiet. At that moment a fire truck
went by noisily. Torako sighed. She respected her family, and the fact that she
had a duty to perform, but sometimes she wished that she were part of a normal
family, that stayed in one place, oblivious to magic. She'd lived all over the
world already, and she was only fifteen! When she was born they were still
living in China, but soon after, they left. Her mother hated the way the
neighbours would talk about what happened to their father whenever she walked
by. After that it was over to England for a while, until she felt she needed a
change of scenery. So then they lived in Canada until Torako was eight years
old. Then the family decided that Torako needed to be in China and England
again, to better learn about her cultural heritage and the family history that
she would have to dedicate her life to. That's why she was so aggressive when
it came to the Rahn Cards. She'd spent most of her life preparing for the
moment when the book would be opened and the cards needed capturing. Suddenly
this boy who knew nothing about them was making all of that work pointless. No,
she wouldn't stand for it. She would be friendly to him, but when it came to
capture the cards, any friendship with him would be forgotten. Torako sighed
again. She pulled out the card and looked at it.
"I wish you could know what I gave up for you. For my family."
Torako laughed at herself. Why was
she talking to the card? It wasn't like she was expecting it to talk back. She
put it into a deep green velvet bag and pulled the gold tassels to close it.
She set the bag next to the picture frame on her desk and then changed into her
pyjamas, thinking about everyone in Kodokuharu, wondering what they might be doing there now as she fell
asleep.
~*~*~*~*~The
next day
"I want an
explanation."
Chelsea
was not impressed by the fact that Zachary had been ignoring her for almost a
month now.
"I, I've
just been busy!" he shrugged and looked behind him, searching for some way out
of this confrontation. "Nikki would you mind going away for a minute? How come
when people put you in fics you're always together? You know, there were once
these two Hebrew monks and one was suspected of stealing a man's cow, and since
they were always together naturally-"
"ENOUGH!
I'll go." Nikki groaned and then practically ran away from them.
"That's
better."
Chelsea
crossed her arms in front of her and gave Zachary one of those weird looks that
are supposed to mean something.
"What's
going on Zachary? Don't lie to me." She tapped her foot on the ground.
"I have
been busy." He said solemnly.
"It's not
just that! I know it isn't. You've changed somehow. You always seem to be able
to make time for Li. You've been doing stuff with him after school every day
and it's like you have some big secret that Sakura and Madison know about
too.What's going on?"
"It's
nothing, really. I'm sorry, I swear I'll make it up to you somehow. I just
really have a lot of things going on right now."
Chelsea
looked skeptical.
Zachary
looked behind him again, struggling to come up with a better answer. "I…uh, I'm
finding things out about myself that I never new before…it's uh,
really…something I shouldn't be talking about with you, if you know what I
mean. It's kind of…personal." He did some weird thing with his face to make it
look like he was implying something.
"You
aren't lying? I mean…sorry…I guess. I don't really know what you're talking
about but you're going to let me make my own conclusions aren't you?"
Zachary
nodded. 'Please yes' he thought, 'make up your own excuse for me, It's so much
easier to let you think what you want to.'
"I think I
understand." She leaned close to his ear. "Zachary, are you gay?"
Zachary
was a bit worried that she came up with that guess so quickly. "Erm,
don't go telling people that, okay? I wouldn't want them to get the wrong
idea."
"Your
secret's safe."
"I know it
is. Thanks for understanding." He kissed her on the cheek and then walked away,
leaving her almost completely confused.
Great, he
thought, I got away without telling her, but I didn't exactly lie to her
either. But at the same time another part of him wished he could tell her the
truth.
Wait a
minute, he thought to himself. Why can't I tell her the truth anyways? It's not
like the ground will open up under me and I'll be sucked into the fiery pits
of…yeah, I will tell her!
"Chelsea!"
he ran back to her, which confused her even more. "I have to tell you the
truth."
"Truth?
But I thought-"
"I just
wanted to let you think that because it was so much easier to let you think up
your own story. Promise not to tell anybody?"
Chelsea
nodded.
"The truth
is…I'm a card captor."
"What?
What's that supposed to mean?" Chelsea quirked an eyebrow.
"There are
these magical cards I have to capture. Li's been helping me get in shape so I
don't fall on my face every time I try to capture one. That's what's really
been going on. I swear to god."
"I don't
believe this." Chelsea said with an absent looking expression on her face.
"I know,
I-"
"First you
let me think you were gay, and now you're telling me that you're some kind of,
super hero?! I can see that I'm not going to get the truth out of you today.
When you're ready to tell me what's really going on, then come see me."
She crossed her arms and turned away from him.
"Chels!
Come o…don't do this! I told you the truth! I swear on my love for fried
chicken, honest!"
"That's
the problem with you Yamazaki." she glared at him. "You always have to
be so funny even when someone's trying to be serious with you." Chelsea walked
away from him briskly, without turning back, leaving Zachary standing in the
middle of the courtyard with his mouth open, searching for something to say
that would make her stop, and for once actually feeling as if he'd told one too
many stories.
About five
seconds later Li was standing beside him.
"Woman
problems? Anything I can do to help?" Li raised an eyebrow.
"Just shut
up. It's not like you know anything about them either." His shoulders were
slouched, and he had a disgusted look on his face as he turned to Li.
"You told
her, didn't you?"
"Yes, if
you feel you really have to bother me about it. She didn't believe me." He
grumbled and started walking towards the school.
"We all
told you not to Zachary. With the stories you tell all the time, it's no wonder
she didn't believe you."
"I thought
if anyone would, she would. She can always tell when I'm making something up.
At least I thought she could." Zachary gave one of those sad, worried, anxious
anime-style looks to the ground.
"She'll cool off."
"I'll repeat this in case you
didn't hear. It's not like you know anything about them either. Just look at
you and Sakura! Even I can see-"
"Huh? See what? I don't know what
you're talking about! I do not!"
"N-nothing." Zachary pulled
himself back from the threshold of death (caused by Sakura) as they sat down at
their desks. "I just…well…you know that four letter word that can get you into
trouble?"
"Which one?" Li asked innocently.
Zachary sweat dropped. "That…fuzzy
pink one…you know?"
"I think I do." Sakura said from
behind them. "So guys, what's the topic of conversation this morning?"
"Sakura!" Li almost had a heart
attack. "How long have you been sitting there?!" hopefully not long enough to
hear that last outburst, he thought.
"Oh, since about, September." She
said, just to tease him, smiling knowingly. "What's up?"
"Zachary told Chelsea. She didn't
believe it."
"Oh no. Zachary, we told you not
t-"
"YES! We've already been through all
of that." He nearly yelled, with an aggravated expression.
"Humph. And that fuzzy pink word?
What's that about?"
"I think…I…might have broken the
poor girl's heart." He came up with.
"Zachary." Sakura gave him the
look.
"What?!" He looked totally appalled
that she would even suggest that he was lying.
"I think, that you just don't want
anybody to know that you feel, erm, fuzzy-pink for someone. Right?"
"Yes! No, yes, I mean no! I
mean…ohh." Zachary moaned and let his head fall to the desk with a thump.
Sakura smiled sympathetically
while Li tried to keep from letting out even the teeniest snort.
"Zachary, it's okay you know. It's
not like it's a bad thing. I think it's very sweet." She gave Li a sideways
glance.
"Thanks, Sakura, because you know
what every guy wants is to be sweet." He said sarcastically.
Madison came to her desk at that
moment. "Hi everyone." Her voice smiled as much as her face did. "Oh, what's
wrong Zachary?"
In response he just groaned and
buried his head in his arms.
So Li and Sakura explained to her,
and then to Torako when she came in, of course leaving out the fuzzy-pink part.
"Oh, I'm sorry Zachary." Torako
said when they finished. He just waved the comment away as if saying that there
was nothing to be sorry for, he had it coming. At least that's what he kept telling himself.
The bell rang to start the class and Mr. Terada immediately gave
them a stack of stuff to work through for the rest of the class, which was
probably also enough to last till the end of the week. About half an hour into
the class Zachary heard his name.
"Pssst! Zachary!" Torako whispered
to get his attention. He looked over at her and she handed him her eraser with
a note hidden behind it so the teacher wouldn't see.
"Zachary, Torako? What's that?"
Mr. Terada had caught them.
"Oh, Zachary just asked to borrow
my eraser sir."
"Alright."
Zachary unfolded the note after a
few seconds and read;
Zachary,
I don't see why, but my brother wants to meet you and
Quan. Can you come to my place tonight right after school?
~Torako
He gave her back her eraser and
nodded when she looked at him. This could be interesting, he thought.
Torako couldn't believe that she'd
just invited one of her nemeses to dinner on behalf of her other nemesis. She
rolled her eyes as she thought that to herself, and then started to work again.
~*~*~*~*~
Zachary looked up the listing
of numbers, looking for Torako's apartment. He finally found it and pressed the
button.
"Yes?" Torako's voice came over
the intercom.
"It's me," he said.
With a loud buzz and a click that
made him nearly jump out of his skin, the door unlocked.
He took the elevator up to the
fourth floor. The whole time, an arrogant looking guy in a suit kept looking
down his nose at Zachary, who waved to the man and then started talking to his
"invisible friend" in hushed tones.
He knocked on the door and Torako
answered it with a towel wrapped around her head.
"Hi," he said. "We aren't too
early, are we?"
"No, except Saruko isn't even
finished school yet. Come in." She moved aside to let Zachary in to the condo.
"Where's the primate?"
"Sleeping." He poked his backpack
in disgust. "What a leech. All he ever does is eat, sleep, and complain that
I'm "Positively atrocious."
"Ha. Well you can leave him on the couch if you like."
"I like. So, why am I here?" he
got to the point quickly.
"Well the truth is, I don't know.
Honestly, I think my brother is insane, no offence. He dragged Sakura and
Madison off the street to come up here a few days ago without even being
introduced to them first. They told me that if they hadn't seen the resemblance
between us they would have probably run and called the police on him."
"Hmm. Well, it's too late for me
to turn back now. I guess I'll just have to try to live through it."
"Good luck." She dried her hair
off a bit more and then went out of the room to put the towel in the bathroom.
"So, I guess I should show you around. My brother said that it's okay with him
if we meet here sometimes, since he already knows all about everything.
Obviously, this is the hall,"
"I knew it!" Zachary exclaimed.
Torako groaned, and led him around
the place. "This is the living room." She showed him the room that was full of
state-of-the-art electronics.
"Hey cool, Nintendo!" he started
to sprint for it but Torako pulled him back in time.
"Moving along…this is the kitchen.
Saruko's room is down there," She gestured to a closed door with a
'radioactive' sign hung on it, "And a storage room." She led him around the
partition between the kitchen and the living room and down a hallway opposite
Saruko's room.
"This is the bathroom." She
flicked the light on in a room to her left and the bathroom decorated in blue,
silver, and probably fake marble came into view.
"Classay." Zachary nodded.
She pointed to the room on the
right. "That's the laundry room. Nothing exciting in there, unless you count
the dryer lint."
She opened the door to the room at
the end of the hall. "This is my room." She flicked on the light and went in.
Everything was decorated in shades of crimson and gold, and all of the
furniture looked like antique cherry wood.
"Hey, this looks even nicer than
the bathroom. Who's the decorator?" His eyes went up to the ceiling.
"I am. Thanks. My mom hates it."
She turned around to face the mirror on her dresser and started to brush her
hair.
"Hey, parents are supposed to hate
their kid's taste in almost everything. That's the way it's been forever."
"Huh. That I can believe. Have a
seat."
Zachary obediently sat down in the
chair at her desk and started looking at stuff. Even the lava lamp sitting
there was red inside. He was just about to flip open the book that was sitting
there when Torako picked it up out of his hand.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
She opened the top drawer of her dresser and slid it inside.
"What-oh, I see. Anything about me
in there?" he quirked an eyebrow teasingly.
"I could tell you, but then I'd
have to kill you."
"Hey, that's my saying." He turned
back to her desk. It was weird, he had the feeling that Torako could be a lot
more fun if she'd just relax a bit "Who's this?" he carefully picked up the
gold picture frame and looked at it.
"What? Oh, that…that's Jared."
"Oh." He looked at the picture
again. It was one of Torako and a guy who had hair darker blond than hers,
sitting on the grass with part of a roller coaster behind them. She was sitting
in front of his crossed legs leaning back on him. He had his arms around hers,
and she was holding on to his hands in front of her. They were both grinning.
"Is he your boyfriend?"
Torako stopped brushing her hair
and didn't say anything for a few seconds, then gave a strange kind of
half-giggle, "No…he's my best friend. Another part of my taste that my mother
loathes."
"Loathes? Why?"
"Because he's not rich. Because
he's different from us. She told him to his face that she didn't think he was
good enough to be around me. And now she finally got her wish and separated
us." She sighed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"It's alright. You know, when this
picture was taken, it was one of the few times I've ever felt normal in my
life." She laughed to herself. "We went to a theme park with his family, since
mine wanted nothing to do with him. It felt so good to get away from all that
seriousness and just relax, you know? Be a normal teenager. But then I guess
you wouldn't know about being different until now, would you? We met at public
school, before my mother put me in private lessons, which was the first way she
tried to separate us… But that's enough about me for today." She put down her
brush and put a clip in her hair. "Let's go see what's in the fridge."
Zachary followed her out of the
room to the kitchen. He heard a dull scratching noise and couldn't figure out
where it came from until Torako opened the window and a huge bird flew in.
"What's that?!" Zachary gaped at
it as he backed into the wall.
"This," she stroked the bird's
feathers, "is a messenger."
The falcon cocked its head to one
side and looked at Zachary, then at Torako, and pecked at a parcel it had
dropped on the kitchen counter.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Thank you. Wait
here while I write a letter to the headmaster."
It squawked indignantly and
ruffled it's feathers.
"Zachary, look in that cupboard to your left. There should be something for him in there." She grabbed a pen and a pad of paper from beside the phone and started writing quickly.
Zachary opened the cupboard and
found a bag of bird treats. He fished a few out of the container and dropped
them on the counter, a bit nervous about getting too close to the gigantic owl.
"What is all this?" he asked her.
He felt something tugging on his shirtsleeve and looked over, seeing it was the
big bird. "What do you want now?" it hopped over to the container on the
counter. "Okay fine, but that's all." He gave it a couple more treats.
"It's my correspondence course. I
started going to this…school when I turned eleven. Since my mom moved back and
forth between England and China all the time, the headmaster let me take my
courses like this. This way, I learn everything I normally would, but I don't
have to stay away at school."
"What kind of school is so
important that you would want to do that?" Zachary asked.
"Well, a very special one…" she
licked the envelope and gave it to the owl, who flew back out the window.
"Wonder what it is this month…"
Torako opened the parcel and took out a long scroll of parchment. "Oh, finals!
I've got about five projects to do here! Transfiguration… herbology …Damn that
potions master. He wants the antidote for glooberwarts." She read down the
list.
"Glooberwarts huh? What exactly do
you do at this school?"
"Oh, it's…ah, it's a school of witchcraft."
"What, you mean like, you could turn me into a toad by saying abra kedabra?" Zachary did some crazy hand gesture.
Torako looked at him uneasily, like she had just swallowed something prickly. "Don't ever do that again." She croaked.
"How come?"
"Because people with magical abilities…when they do that…bad things can happen. I'm totally serious. It's a different kind of magic all together."
"Sorry."
At that moment Saruko finally came home.
"Hello kiddies. I'm not
interrupting anything am I?" he grinned as he stuck his head through the
doorway.
"No, nothing. What's for supper?"
Torako asked quickly.
"I thought I'd prepare a gourmet
meal…but then I remember that all I've ever cooked is macaroni and cheese.
Yamazaki, what's the best pizza place in town?"
Zachary laughed. "That'd be
Luigi's"
"Great. You order, I'll pay."
~*~*~*~*~*~
So the pizza came, and when it
came, they started to eat it, after Saruko put the latest horror movie into the
DVD player.
"No, don't open the door!" Quan
(who had finally woken up) yelled at the girl on the screen.
"Uh." Torako rolled her eyes and
took her empty plate to the kitchen. "I'm going to go work on some of my
homework. I'll leave you three alone to plot whatever little scheme you need
to."
After she'd been gone for about
five minutes, Saruko turned the TV volume down low and turned to Zachary.
"So, Yamazaki. What do you think
of my sister?" he asked.
"What? I…what?"
"Well, what do you think of her?"
"Well…she's very…different. And
hot- uh, nice."
"Back up there, what was that
other thing you said? Hot?"
"Uh," he cleared his thought, "No?
I mean, not that she's not it's just…uh, yeah." He stammered.
"Well, if you even think of trying
anything with her, just remember that if you make anything bad happen to my
little sister, I will kick your ass in a second."
"Uh, thanks for letting me
know…sir…is that why you asked me over here? Because if you don't mind me
saying, that's a pretty stupid reason, and I think if I did try anything with
her, which I wouldn't, and I did make something bad happen to her, which I
wouldn't, she'd be quite capable of kicking my ass herself."
"I'm sorry. I'm just so used to
having to beat guys off of her with a stick. Anyways, what I really asked you
over for was just to meet you. I've heard stories about the Guardian Beast
since I was very young. You know, when she first met you she was all mad and
she said you were exactly like me, an idiot. I thought hey, maybe you were an
okay guy. She calls me an idiot all the time, and just look at me."
"Uh, huh." Zachary looked at him
funny. "For some reason I don't find that incouraging."
"So, you're new to magic, hmm? You
better figure it out fast, because Torako is very determined. No offence, but I
think it's best if you stay out of our family's business. It means a lot to
us."
"Hey, just who do you think you
are mister? Zachary is the chosen one, not your sister. His destiny is to be
one of the greatest wizards of all time, and nothing you two say or do can get
in the way of that." Quan snapped out of his daze and yelled at Saruko.
"Hey, I'm just trying to save you
some trouble. All I'm saying is, she'll be all fun and games with you, but when
a card comes around she'll still be your rival, truce or no truce."
"Well, thanks for the warning, and
the pizza, but I think it's time for me to go. Come on Quan. We don't have to
put up with this crap." He picked his backpack up off the couch and headed for
the door.
"Zachary? Why are you leaving so
soon?" Torako poked her head out of her bedroom door.
"Ask him." He pointed at Saruko as
he went out the door.
"What did you do?!" He heard
Torako yell to her brother just as he closed the door.
"Why doesn't anybody think I can
do this?! They think I'm a weak loser who can't do anything!"
"Well, it could be your lack of
skill, or your lack of experience, or you lack of-"
"Thanks for your support." He said
sarcastically. "Now get in the bag."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That's it for this chapter. I need
to ask a favour of everyone who reads this now. When you review, please send me
the corniest, most awful one liners you've ever heard that would fit with this
story, and also any bad pickup lines. I'll use the best ones in some of my next
chapters ^_^.
